WOW Ok so I vanished for a little bit – sorry life’s been crazy lately…got let go from the project I was working on – and got placed onto another temp assignment through a different temp agency at a local government agency. Sadly, this one is making $12.00/hr at 37.5 hrs/week vs. the $16.00/hr for 60.0 hrs/week I was working. Sucks, but hey it is what it is…thankfully we have some of them refund left to help live on, and we are…

Total Groceries: $416.11

$22.45 – Hobby Lobby, YTA Creations

$11.84 – Hobby Lobby, YTA Creations

$13.46 – Hobby Lobby, YTA Creations

$15.50 – SkipStitch.com, Blade for Rotary

Total YTA Creations: $66.25

Been a full few weeks for sure – I’ve picked up a Smartphone FINALLY for YTA Creations, it’s on my Dad’s family plan, so I have to be extra careful about the Data usage – doing all I can to avoid using it, and sticking to the available Wi-Fi networks when I can. So thus the $60.00 for a phone, a friend of a friend found a used phone for me to get activated, so then I had to pick-up a case to protect it.

Find YTA on Instagram, Click Here Find all of my wonderful finished projects and works in progress on this site!

Then the funds at Target – ugh went to get my stuff out of Silver on Friday from the dealership and found my iPod was MISSING – I am soo aggravated by that – it was in there when I got into the wreck – and when I left it with the tow company the 1st time – there was items moved around on the console when I went in and that was the 1st hint that something was “off” I am going to file a claim with the insurance company on Monday to hopefully get reimbursed for it, but I feel so very violated. So I purchased a replacement one at Target and then we bought my hubby a much-deserved Tablet – he’s been looking at them and researching them for a while and he does so much for us, I figured it was high time he got himself something. We bought him a Samsung Tab 4, with an Android operating system – he’s still very much learning how to use it and is getting royally frustrated, but he’ll get it eventually.

So that’s where we’re at currently – waiting for parts to arrive at the dealership for the repairs to begin, they are just cosmetic, thankfully no mechanical damage was done to the engine.

1st I was let go from the project outage – hours being cut, so naturally I was an easy choice.

2nd I was placed on a new temp job paying $12.00/hr. – a LOT less than what I was making at the outage.

Just thankful we have the refund to help us some.

So here’s our breakdown for this week

$34.22 – Music & Arts

$19.99 – Gold’s Gym Membership

$8.55 – Netflix.com

Total Bills: $62.76

$7.46 – Hobby Lobby

$7.08 – Ship & Mail Plus

$11.04 – Wal-Mart

Total for Etsy Order #2: $14.54 + $11.04, Addt’l Yarn = $25.58 with a $22.00 Deposit for Order Rec’d 03.15.16

$11.07 – Food Lion

$9.04 – Everybody’s IGA

$5.26 – Everybody’s IGA

$23.71 – Harris Teeter

$167.72 – Wal-Mart

Total Groceries: $216.80

$11.11 – Target, Prescription + Misc.

$11.77 – Once Upon a Child – Kid Clothes

$33.54 – Once Upon a Child – Kid Cothes

$53.17 – Wal-Mart, Misc.

$24.85 – Murphy’s Oil, Gas

$6.17 – Tommy’, Cigs. for Hubby

$49.22 – Clothes Mentor, L – Work Clothes

$17.80 – Sunrise Express, Laundry

$5.00 – Dr. Robbie Adams, Co-Pay

$208.57 -NC Courts, Speeding Ticket

$2.00 – Parking Downtown

$10.00 – Nintendo Digital, Game for Kids

$343.00 – Hertz Rental Car (see below)

Total Misc.: $776.20

$4.82 – PCJ, Coffee

$7.00 – Impact Nutrition

$10.86 – Kilwin’s Ice Cream

$12.14 – Kilwin’s Ice Cream

$28.00 – Papa John’s

$9.04 – PCJ, Coffee

$7.00 – Impact Nutrition

Total Dining Out: $78.86

Ok so in the middle of the week we also received our State Tax Refund, $105.00, so that’s been added back into our budget.

Explanation for Hertz – I was involved in another wreck this morning – this time it was 100% my fault – filed the claim with the insurance and picked up a rental car at their rate so we can still get to work, the gym, scouts and the grocery store. The cost listed is a $200.00 deposit hold on top of my cost – which for a week is $120.00 + taxes/fees, not terrible in truth. Final amount will be determined once the repairs are done on Silver.

Anyhew, that’s about it from us this week! One more large bill due, the taxes on Silver so we can get the tags renewed. That’ll be next week’s payout, think I’ve spent enough this week.

Sorry I didn’t get on yesterday – took the day off and spent it running around town with my hubby! Tried to get a traffic ticket (speeding) resolved, but alas I mis-read my own notes and ended up getting there after the allotted time – SO I’ll try again next week – I have until the 24th.

Anyhew, here’s the breakdown of this week’s spending – seems we went a tad overboard – but we had a lot of errands on Sunday to handle and that’s where a lot of our spending was – throughout the week too – we spent more than we should have – more of those one off stops for groceries. Ugh.

Anyhew, here we go

$540.00 – Regional Acceptance – I put back into play the other allotments of $180.00/each and paid Regional for March’s payment.

Total Bills: $698.14

Total for YTA Creations: $72.66 (Rec’d Payment of $22.00 for Etsy Order)

$6.69 – Tommy’s (Cig’s for Hubby)

$27.01 – Amazon.com (Trumpet Cleaning Kit for my Son)

$29.98 – Kwik Kuts

$1.04 – Target (Lotion)

$16.23 – Wal-Mart (Umbrella for James)

Total Misc. Spending: $80.95

$18.36 – Harris Teeter

$6.60 – Safeway Food Mart

$30.26 – Food Lion ($10.26 = Groceries, $20.00 = Cash)

$194.96 – Wal-Mart (Groceries + Shoes/Socks for Ashley)

Total Groceries: $250.18 – $20.00 Cash = $230.18

$5.34 – Amazon.com (Minions Movie)

$3.20 – Amazon.com (Ice Age Continental Drift Movie)

Total Entertainment: $8.54

$1.59 – Cigarette City (Drink for Hubby)

$10.09 – Wal-Mart (Breakfast for Kids)

$6.26 – Port City Java

$33.00 – Papa John’s

$4.23 – Gold’s Gym (Smoothie)

$20.02 – Wendy’s

$2.12 – Wendy’s

$9.00 – Impact Nutrition

$15.94 – Chipotle

Total Dining Out: $102.25

$374.48 – Best Buy

$223.70 – Target

Total for New TV for House: $598.48

I honestly am surprised at how much we’ve spent this week – but now that the bills were caught up and we just have the ticket & taxes on Silver to resolve we felt comfortable going ahead and getting the new TV. We wanted a 40″ one but the color was not up to par with what we thought was good quality – and Target/Wal-Mart and Costco all had the 40″ one for roughly $359.00, so we wandered into Best Buy yesterday to ask questions about how a Smart TV works (yes we were still on a tube TV) and ended up finding a 43″ one for the same price as the 40″ one and better quality picture, so we went with that one. We knew the TV stand we had wouldn’t work for either one, so we bought a new stand for $199.00 at Target. We’re pleased with both purchases and know they’ll last us forever!

Not overly happy with my current situation, but this week I’ve just tried my best to relax and just unwind some before jumping headfirst into the job search next week…

I’ve registered with NC Works, filed for unemployment, and have gone on one interview at a staffing agency, the rest of the week I’ve spent creating fun and awesome crochet stuff, hitting the gym and sleeping! Hee Hee guess that’s a good way to spend a vacation week, no?

Oh I have also scheduled my COPAT (Corr. Officer Physical Agility Test) with the Dept of Corrections, that’s scheduled for 11/19, giving me ample time to prepare for it. There’s a lot of physical work I need to put in to get 100% ready for it, my trainer has offered to help me in any way she can, so I am just doing what I can on my own and will incorporate into my workouts what she suggests.

Next week, I jump in full force, taking my turn looking for work in the afternoon, going to the gym, and planning Girl Scout meetings for my Brownies’ badge work, all the while also working on fun crochet stuff – see a theme here?! LOL!!!

Anyhew, tomorrow my severance, bonus, and vacation time payout hit my bank account, so we’ll be living on that money for awhile, next week we also have to go to DSS to submit more paperwork for the kids’ Health Choice and see about bumping up our food stamp monthly allotment from $258/month, to more now we’re down to just two Unemployment Incomes per month instead of one + a salary.

Figured I’d drop in an update…nothing really earth shattering has happened since I walked out of my office for the last time last week…can’t turn my work brain off though…really hoping the replacement is doing what she’s supposed to, and that my poor co-worker they had me cross train isn’t dealing with her too much…will send her an email tonight to say hey and check-in…can’t just shut-off five years…

Happy Thursday! Hope Everyone’s had a good couple of weeks since my last update.

Right now here’s where we are

Hubby is still unemployed and searching – he had one “interview/information session” with a place on Monday that wanted him to pay something like $1,500 to get licensing and certifications…um yeah not gonna happen. He’s done a handful of those personality type assessments (which BTW he’s really getting tired of doing) and still natch. He spends close to 6 hours a day searching for work – I’ve had to impress strongly on him the need to take breaks and find some balance within his job search – he’d cut pretty much all of us out and was so focused on that he couldn’t see the forest for the trees, was truly frustrating.

Anyhew, we were planning to go camping with our Girl Scout troop this weekend, but couldn’t justify the cost of a tent, two new sleeping bags + pads and mess kits, so it was decided I’d go alone with our daughter borrowing a tent from our troop leader…we already have the sleeping bags/mess kits from previous trips. So tomorrow we leave for a weekend of fun in the sun at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park in Tabor City – roughly 90ish mins. from our home in Wilmington – the troop is paying for the trip, I just had to give a $20 food contribution.

The only real changes since my last update are that we were finally approved for Food Stamps – to the tune of $228/month – what they expect us to be able to buy with that is just astounding…ugh…that’s literally $57/week…our normal grocery budget is $150 – $200/week…so this should be real interesting.

Unemployment did finally get back to my Hubby and told him he should have a decision letter by the end of the week…haven’t seen on yet, so maybe today or tomorrow’s mail.

Though I did also get my 1st Order from my Etsy shop! YEAH!!! Though it was a family member she did order and afghan and a scarf/hat set sold for a total of $142.00 including shipping! Working my way through completing that order along with two other orders, one for a Monster High hat & arm warmer set, sold for cost of supplies, and a Minecraft themed hat/scarf set, sold for $35.00, profit on my end will be $30.00 – got the hats of both of those completed, check them out

Aren’t they cool?!?!? I am looking forward to getting the rest of the orders completed. So that’s where I’m at right now…still trying to figure out the profit/loss + shipping stuff for the Etsy shop, not 100% on the balances there.

Well here we are roughly a month out from my Hubby losing his job – the job search is still going – he spends the better part of his day searching for and applying to new jobs – he’s had two bites – both Pet Retailers – one has sent him for a Drug Screen and are doing a Background Check but we wait…and we wait…and wait some more…in the mean time we’re doing our very best to try and get by. That’s a good way to put it – get by.

After my last post I did do some thinking, digging, investigating and decided to open an Etsy shop to try and sell some of my crochet – so here it is

YarntoAfghan Creations on Etsy – Click on the Image

I also have a Website where I blog about my work and share the latest and greatest projects, such as these

So I do it all – blankets, hats, scarves, etc. I haven’t attempted any sweaters/clothes, but that’s next I’ll bet!

Anyhew – this venture hasn’t brought in much other than the $75.00 for the previous afghan and about $40.00 for the White Flip Flops for a friend. The other two projects are just about finished, putting finishing touches on one as we speak and will be delivering those this weekend.

So now down to the Nitty Gritty

I have added us to my Company’s Health Insurance and that literally eats into 2/3 of my paycheck, rendering my last one less than $300 – how is someone supposed to live on that? Ugh – we’re still waiting for his Unemployment and our Food Stamps – both places have told us it’ll be another 3-Weeks before we receive either of those benefits, lovely right? So until then we borrow from Peter to pay Paul – so I borrowed from the Vehicle tax payment to pay the water bill yesterday, $174 to prevent shut-off. I will say this though – being on the company benefits + having enrolled in our living well program did give us a discount + it’ll reimburse me quarterly for my Monthly gym membership dues…so YAY there! I’ve filed for 1st & 2nd Quarter and am waiting for that payment.

If there was more Overtime to be had I’d take it – but alas there’s not – I am so slow at work right now I am literally going insane sitting here day in and day out.

On the upside though my daughter went back to school today – year round school – and her supply list was all of (4) Four items + 1 donation item for the classroom and we managed to find her a pair of sneakers at a Thrift store here in town for like $10.00, and since school just let out 6-Weeks ago she hasn’t grown so much we need to replace her entire school wardrobe, Thank Goddess for that!